Mongoose Release

Exciting news at DAKTARI this week as we released six of our banded mongooses into the wild: Smurfie, Mongo, Sissi and her three babies.

Banded mongooses are native to Africa and are famed on their ability to kill snakes. Unlike many mongoose species, banded mongooses are highly social and live in troops of five to thirty animals. Smurfie, Sissi and Mongo were all brought to DAKTARI individually in 2015 and 2016. As the mongooses were unfamiliar with one another, we kept them in the same enclosure for over a year so they could bond and eventually form an established troop. Early this year, Sissi had three babies which meant three soon became six, an ideal number for a mongoose troop. We waited for the babies to grow and gain strength before eventually deciding on a release date.

The pack was released in an isolated part of DAKTARI's reserve, away from the camp. It was great to see them run to freedom and we hope they will do well in the wild! In the meantime we are left with Jackson, who was unable to be released as he continued to fight with the other mongooses and Rex and Tootie, who are still babies.